An Ohio man could face six months in the slammer after his enormous red chopper induced panic in a woman.

Bill Morrison was busted after the woman spotted his enormous rubber chopper when he entered Corky's Thomastown bar in Akron, Ohio on October 16.

The woman called 911 to say a man with long hair, and a trench coat, had openly shown off the blood spattered chopper in the boozer before stepping outside, adding: "It's kind of suspicious, he's pacing back and forth."

Morrison duly complied, pulling out his chopper and laying it on the sidewalk.

The cops reported that on closer inspection, they determined it was actually a "facsimile" with a rubber head and wooden handle, and the blood was red paint. According to the report, Morrison said he had paid $80 for the fake axe and that he had been responsible for a number of Halloween tableaux over the years.

The Beacon Journal adds that under the state's relevant law covering inducing panic, "no person shall cause the evacuation of any public place, or otherwise cause serious public inconvenience or alarm ... [by] ... threatening to commit any offense of violence or committing any offense, with reckless disregard of the likelihood that its commission will cause serious public inconvenience or alarm”.

However, Morrison's lawyers say he had simply gone to the bar to sell the rubber cleaver to a friend. The Akron city's prosecutors told the newspaper they would look at all the circumstances of the case before Morrison is due in court on January 23. ®